Japan captain Wataru Endo was rewarded for his recent solid contributions at Liverpool by being voted the English Premier League leaders' Player of the Month for December on Thursday.
The 30-year-old won the monthly award for the first time since his summer move from Stuttgart, ranking above Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah in a fan poll after finding his feet at his new club.
The defensive midfielder began the month by scoring his first league goal on Dec. 3 when he came on as a late substitute and scored a vital leveler to spark a dramatic 4-3 home win over Fulham.
Endo has since started all seven games in the month, six of them in the league including two big performances during home draws against fellow powerhouses Manchester United and Arsenal.
"I'm so glad to be chosen as the Player of the Month. I hope this is just one of many!" Endo said on Liverpool's official website. "December is a very important month, also for me, because we had so many injured players and I knew I needed to show why I'm here."
Endo barely started in the league until November as he required time to adapt to a new league, but stepped up and more than filled the void left by regular starter Alexis Mac Allister, who suffered injury.
"I needed time to adapt so the most important thing was to keep playing, in my opinion," Endo said. "I had to keep playing because we had many injured players. So I was a little bit lucky."
While Liverpool sit three points clear at the top of the table, Endo could be absent for around a month as he departs to captain Japan at the Asian Cup in Qatar scheduled for Jan. 12 - Feb. 10.
"But I have to go, I had no choice," Endo said. "Now it's time to play for the Japan national team because I have to play and I'm captain of the national team."
"To play for the national team is an amazing thing so I'll do my best in Qatar and I want to bring the title and come back here."
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